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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29866191">Catalyst</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zimothy/pseuds/Zimothy'>Zimothy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Post-Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Red has a mental breakdown, lots and lots of angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:21:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,557</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29866191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zimothy/pseuds/Zimothy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tallest Red escapes the Florpus Hole injured and traumatized. He reflects on what everything that lead to his near-death experience and discovers exactly what role he played in Zim's path of destruction.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Almighty Tallest Purple &amp; Almighty Tallest Red, Almighty Tallest Red &amp; Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Catalyst</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you always RissyNicole for beta reading and making sure what I post is the best it can be!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Red hadn’t been the same since the Massive finally exited the Florpus Hole…</p><p>The space anomaly spit them back out <i>somewhere,</i> way off of their original course with most of their technology completely shot and very few of the visible armada still alive. </p><p>He remembered feeling shocked that what felt like a thousand years of hell had finally stopped. It was hard for his mind to wrap around the idea that it was over. He tried to look around but everything was far too dark.</p><p>“Purple, are you alright?” Red asked amidst the darkness. </p><p>“Yeah, are you?” Purple responded. He sounded distant. </p><p>“Where are you?” Red spoke up a little louder, he couldn’t hear his own voice properly. He couldn’t even see if his fellow tallest was next to him and tried to feel for him with his hands.</p><p>“I’m right here,” Purple said, and Red felt a hand on his shoulder. </p><p>A low humming emitted from the Massive and the lights turned back on. Purple looked absolutely disheveled, the left side of his face suffered severely from burns from the dimension where they were puppets set on fire, for some reason. His left eye had a paler purple color to it. It looked as if he could no longer see from it. </p><p>Purple looked at him, and then his gaze went slightly upward. “Oh, lemme just…” he spoke softly and raised his arm. </p><p>“What are you—” Red tried to question, and then a sharp pain erupted in his right antenna. He couldn’t even feel it until Purple started messing with it. </p><p>“There’s a kink in your antenna,” Purple said. </p><p>“STOP IT! IT HURTS!” Red yelled back, and Purple quickly retracted his arm.</p><p>Red sheepishly felt his antenna. It was indeed broken. Any feeling he could still feel in it was pain.</p><p>Red looked at what remained of the Massive crew. There was a decent amount of Irkens still standing, but a great deal of them remained motionless on the ground. </p><p>“How does this happen? How does something like <i>this</i> keep happening?” Red questioned to himself and then to Purple, hoping he could provide some sort of answer. </p><p>Purple quietly shrugged, so Red rephrased himself. </p><p>“How does <i>one</i> little Irken nearly drive his own species into extinction multiple times?” Red shouted loud enough for everyone alive and lucid to hear. </p><p>“Actually, my Tallest, you insisted on flying straight into the Florpus Hole after I continuously advised that we go around—” that one navigator tried to speak up. </p><p>Purple scoffed. “You’re still here? Get outta here!” </p><p>Red was far too lost within an existential crisis to join in on Purple ridiculing the crew. He thought he could keep Zim at a distance, to appease him and have him get himself killed or just live his life elsewhere, but that wasn’t possible with Zim. </p><p>“I feel like I’m going crazy, we’re not going to survive something like this again. As soon as Zim calls again, we’re going to be subjected to some other form of torture, and it could be our last!” Red spoke like a madman. “I can’t do this anymore! Zim is going to kill us, he’s going to <i>kill us,</i> Purple!”</p><p>“Shut up and calm down,” Purple said firmly. “Let’s just go back home.” </p><p>Purple looked around the room, craning his neck further than he normally would. He didn’t comment on the fact that he could only see out of one eye. He might have been avoiding bringing that up. </p><p>“Yeah, let’s…” Red spoke up for the crowd of survivors, but his voice died down quickly, “go home to Irk.”</p>
<hr/><p>Operation Impending Doom II failed. </p><p>There was no scavenging what was left. None of the planets they conquered made up for the fact that most of the Armada was gone and he was left being poked and prodded. Medical drones tried to salvage him and Purple as best they could. </p><p>There was no victory in that, being mortally wounded and returning to Irk with fewer Irkens than when they had left. </p><p>Attached by the PAK to a recharging station, Red turned his bad side to look over at Purple. </p><p>Purple had always been finicky when it came to anything body related. Red wanted to survey his reaction as best he could, even though he couldn’t hear anything from how he was angled. He saw Purple flinch as the doctors tried to lather a salve around his injured eye. </p><p>One of the medical drones repositioned Red to look forward. They tested his antennae’s reflexes and pain erupted once his injured antenna flicked. He could vaguely hear the medical drones talking about whether they would ever heal correctly and if prosthetics were needed. </p><p>He yearned for a moment of peace, for his mind was already wandering to dark places as they continued to speak. If he could just hide away for a moment…</p><p>“You’re free to recuperate as you wish to,” A medical drone spoke up, loud enough for Red to properly hear them. “We’ll await your next decision.” </p><p>Next decision? Was there even going to be one at this point? It felt as though anything could lead to their deaths, for if they decided to cultivate a new operation…a certain little Irken would surely show themselves again. </p><p>“We haven’t been here in so long. Do we have to consult the control brains so soon?” Purple whispered on his good side. “Hey…Red?” </p><p>Red hummed a response and looked at him. Purple’s antennae angled in confusion.</p><p>“Do you want to get some food? They’ll probably bring it to us,” Purple asked. </p><p>“No, but you should eat something,” Red replied, standing up unsteadily. His mangled antenna threw his balance off, despite his feet never touching the floor since he had become tallest. “I want to be alone.”</p><p>Purple, who would’ve normally insisted on following him as he didn’t like being alone, remained meek and quiet. He knew that Red was different, and he was different too in less noticeable ways. It was best to just leave things be until either of them got the confidence to speak up about what had happened to them in the Florpus Hole.</p>
<hr/><p>Red once again tried to even out the new kinks in his broken antenna, but no matter what he did, it would return to its newly deformed state. </p><p>This is what being a tallest had brought him. </p><p>He must be cursed to have been born during the same time as Zim. </p><p>At first, it was harmless. Zim was annoying. He was small, loud, and could never do anything correctly. It seemed innocent enough at first, safe enough to tease, but that little Irken couldn’t help but bring destruction into every Irken life he came across.</p><p>Two tallest killed. Nearly four. </p><p>The calls weren’t amusing anymore. He couldn’t laugh at him anymore, and at this point could barely even think of him without feeling a sense of dread.</p><p>What was <i>wrong</i> with Zim? </p><p>Red perused through the Irk’s grand library. Every known event in Irken history was documented here, as well as within their PAKs. He made brief eye contact with the information storage drones and then sought out what he had come in for.</p><p>Red browsed through filed images of every Irken elite force squadron that graced the Irken military training planet of Devastis. </p><p>He found the photo of his own squad, all lined up like a class photo, everyone clad with an Irken insignia upon their forehead. </p><p>He saw him and Purple before their growth spurt. They wore a stern look on their faces as protocol for an important documented photograph…All except Zim, who stood in the very front on the farthest right side. He had a big grin on his face. </p><p>It felt weird to see a photograph of Zim back before anyone had any clue of how dangerous he was going to become</p><p>No matter what move they made next, that blight would still reappear. Red felt a twinge of fear that no matter how badly he wanted his troubles to be over, Zim would still come back. He always came back somehow, like some higher power’s punishment upon the Irken Empire. </p><p>Zim. </p><p>His former teammate. Someone he’s known his entire life. The little Irken who almost killed him. </p><p>A sharp pain shot through his antenna. A loud ringing invaded his mind. </p><p>He hardly felt Irken anymore, not at that moment. At that moment, he was nothing but the fear and dread he felt…Doubt and regret, anger and sadness.<br/>
Zim may have been the cause of all the pain, but Red was the catalyst. </p><p>He was the one who set every action in motion. </p><p>The fake mission, the defective SIR unit, all the chances and opportunities he threw at Zim because for some reason, Red didn’t stop him as he should have.</p><p>Irkens rarely felt guilt, so he had no name to call this horrible feeling that took control of him. All the anxiety and paranoia he felt had manifested itself in excruciating pain. </p><p>It was a panic attack, but Red didn’t know what that was. </p><p>Everything within him screamed, and he must have been screaming himself because through his blurry vision he saw the drones look at him with fear...But Red heard no scream come out of him. </p><p>All he heard was ringing.</p>
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